Feeling normal feels really good
Last week Bert and I did something really normal. Well, it used to be normal back in the olden days of a year ago. For the first time since late February 2020 we were in the bleachers in the Arena at Post Falls High School to watch the boys basketball team play Lake City High School.
On March 7, 2020 we were in the PFHS auditorium with other fans watching the Idaho High School Basketball championship game on the big screen, featuring the Trojans and Borah battling it out. (Borah prevailed 65-56) That was the last high school sporting event before the pandemic brought normal life to a screeching halt.
For the first time this year, rules for attendance at prep sporting events opened up to those of us who aren’t family of the players but for fans as well and we eagerly took advantage. When the Trojan pep band launched into the fight song I admit getting a little emotional. Oh my goodness, it was so ... normal!
We were sitting right behind our friends Wanda and Wade McLean and Wanda’s 89-year-old mother, Vonnie Satchwell. Vonnie’s grandson Mike McLean is the head coach and her great-grandson Caden plays for the Trojans. A four-generation high school basketball family for the record books!
Since the early 1990s when Coach McLean (PFHS ‘95) was playing junior high and high school basketball and our daughter Sarah was a cheerleader we’ve been in the bleachers with the McLeans. It felt a little like a family reunion. Most of all it felt normal.
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Super Bowl Sunday is a few days away and it’s been a little low key on the promotion this year. For those who no longer have a dog in the fight the last two teams standing, Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are up for game day fan grabs.
The Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champs, after winning their first Super Bowl since 1970 last year. They have the momentum definitely and their 25-year-old marquee quarterback Patrick Mahomes is always a treat to watch.
I’ve gotten a kick out of hearing and reading about his “elderly” counterpart leading Tampa Bay. At 43 Tom Brady may seem like an old man to Mahomes but Tom is a year younger than our youngest daughter. By comparison Mahomes is one year older than our second grandson.
If the Seahawks played in every Super Bowl it would certainly make life easier on the first Sunday in February. But what’s not to love about a day dedicated to consuming a week’s worth of carbs, calories and cholesterol and some of the most outrageous and creative television commercials? Oh, and football.
With no pretense of actually knowing much about football and not really paying attention to teams other than the Seahawks until the playoffs, I’ve got to go with the old guy. There’s much to be said for youth but even more to be said for a quarterback actually having been to the Super Bowl nine times previously and coming away with a win six times. I’m thinking Tom Brady has enough in the tank to add another ring to his collection.
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Happy birthday today to Jackie Jameson, Leslie Damiano, Cindy Spence, Denise Lundy, Dawn Magness, Kay Burke, Howard Martinson and Donna Armbruster. Tomorrow Gene Reed, Cindy Mead, Connie Johnson, Chariesse Gross and Nancy Wilson blow out their candles.
Susan Jacobson, Sophie Medlock, Leslie Deubner, Sharon Anderson, Vicki Johnson and Jeanette Dunn mark their birthdays on Friday. Marie Widmyer, Quinn Widmyer, Jimmy McAndrew, Samuel Nolting, Randy Oaks, Rich Morrow, Carole Fredekind, Cris Burnham, Rick Altman, Pat Clevenger, Stephen Scott, Lisa Hunt, Duane Justus, Matt Ormeshed and Mike Grabenstein celebrate on Saturday.
Pat Coffield (70!),Amanda Miller, Jim Thyssen, Lori Malin, Angel Duthie, Terry Ellis and Shawn Aldrich take another trip around the sun on Sunday. On Monday Barb Bradley, Linda Davis, Natalie Forsyth, Pamela Thoms, Lynn Hayes, Henry Hildreth, Rocky Brockhoff and Larry O’Leary put on their party hats. Feb. 9 birthdays belong to Linda Wilhelm, Marc Eberlein, Brandie Shofner, Buddy Le, Marian Crumb, Greg Smith and Alta Steele.
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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.